CPM-Congress Jointly Fields Candidate For Mahestala Bypoll

Mahestala: Within a week after the Central Committee of CPI-M allowed not “alliance” but “understanding” with Congress in the recently concluded party congress in Hyderabad, the two parties are jointly fielding a candidate in Maheshtala Assembly by-election. The seat fell vacant following the death of sitting MLA Kasturi Das.

Das had defeated Shamik Lahiri of CPI-M in the 2016 Assembly election. Trinamool Congress fielded Dulal Das, Kasturi’s husband and chairman of Maheshtala Municipality. CPI-M has fielded Provat Chowdhury, after Lahiri refused to contest from the seat. Congress is not fielding any candidate.

Suryakanta Misra, CPI-M state secretary, had a discussion with Adhir Chowdhury on Tuesday and Congress decided to back CPI-M. BJP is yet to field its candidate. CPI-M and Congress are desperately trying to hold each other’s hand, as both the parties are suffering from massive erosion of support base. Sixty thousand CPI-M cadres did not renew their membership.